Setup of the NA7004 was a breeze. I connected an Ethernet network cable from the NA7004 to my router, a pair of RCA cables to an input pair on my receiver, the power cord, and I was good to go. I turned on the player and the NA7004 automatically configured itself via DHCP on my network. After a couple minutes of auto-configuration, the NA7004 came up on Internet Radio as its default input. The vTuner application determined where I was in the world and automatically populated a list of local channels. I selected a local channel and was listening to music. I was delighted with just how simple this device was to get up and running.

Once the basic network connection has been made, there are a few more things to consider. If you are interested in Rhapsody, Napster, or Pandora, then you must sign up for an account with those providers using your favorite internet browser. You are not able to create new accounts for those services directly from the NA7004. In my case, I tested the NA7004 using my Pandora account. To enter your Pandora credentials, you navigate to the “Network” menu, select “Pandora Account”, and then enter your email address and your password. That’s all there is to it.

Since the NA7004 relies on software to function, it is a good idea to make sure that the NA7004 is up to date with the latest firmware. The NA7004 allows you to update the player’s firmware directly from the internet. Simply navigate to the “Other” menu and select “Firmware Update”. This menu allows you to check for an update and the player will give you an approximate estimate for how long the process will take. Once you’ve decided to upgrade, simply select “Start” and the player takes care of the rest. The player will give you status updates during the process and will warn you to not unplug the NA7004 while the update is taking place. The process took about 17 minutes which was a bit longer than the original 11 minutes that was estimated.

If you want to make use of the optional AirPlay functionality with the NA7004, then you need to go to the Marantz site and purchase a non-refundable AirPlay upgrade for $49.99. This is a onetime upgrade fee for the NA7004 and the Marantz web site requires that you enter some important information such as your model number, an upgrade ID, serial number, and the MAC address of the player. All of that information is easy to obtain directly from the menus in the NA7004. The Marantz web site also has a help file which walks you through the process. Once you enter the information and pay for the upgrade, Marantz authorizes an upgrade package for the NA7004. This took about a day for my review player. To activate the upgrade, you navigate to the “Add New Feature” menu and select the AirPlay upgrade package. The NA7004 will then go through an upgrade process similar to the firmware update. When the process is done, you will be able to use AirPlay with the NA7004.

If your home networking environment requires a more advanced configuration than typically provided by DHCP, the NA7004 provides a comprehensive menu to make any necessary changes to the player’s network configuration. The last setting that you should consider changing is “Network Standby”. Although enabling this function consumes some additional power while the NA7004 is in Standby mode, the function allows the NA7004 to automatically turn on when it receives a network request from an application in your home network. I will discuss this functionality in the next section.